Editor's Note Penn Medicine has made significant strides in reducing the environmental footprint of the OR through department- and team-level initiatives, according to a March 29 report in Penn Medicine news. Driven by CIRCE: Medicine, a faculty group consisting of providers from Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, examples…
Editor's Note Fallout from the February 21 cyberattack on Change Healthcare continues to threaten physician practices and their patients nationwide, with respondents to a recent American Medical Association (AMA) survey indicating difficulties with insurance claims and eligibility verification. AMA published the results of the informal survey April 10. Conducted March…
Editor's Note The World Health Organization (WHO) is sounding the alarm about the rise of the bird flu virus—H5N1—and the threat it poses to humans, Medical Xpress reported on April 18. Experts are concerned because the bird flu has recently spread from wild birds and poultry to cows and goats…
Editor's Note The OR Manager Conference 2024 announces Allison Massari, keynote speaker, executive coach, burn survivor, and celebrated artist, as the closing keynote speaker. Massari will deliver her address, titled The Fire Within – The Art of Bold Self Leadership, on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, from 11:15 am to 12:15 pm at the MGM…
Editor's Note Medical management care with evacuation surgery could yield better 180-day outcomes than without in patents treated within 24 hours for acute intracerebral hemorrhage, according to study results covered in an April 10 MedPage Today report. The ENRICH (Early MiNimally-invasive Removal of IntraCerebral Hemorrhage (ICH)) trial is a multicenter,…
Editor's Note Shortages of active drugs in the US have reached a new record, according to an April 12 CNN report on data from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the University of Utah Drug Information Service. The two organizations have been tracking this data since 2001, the CNN report says.…
Editor's Note The US Food and Drug Administration has classified recalls of Boston Scientific’s Obsidio Conformable Embolic and Fresenius Kabi USA’s Ivenix Infusion System Large Volume Pump (LVP) software as class 1, the most serious category and an indicator of risk of serious injury or death. No injuries or deaths…
Editor's Note Amid a decline in the financial performance of academic medical centers (AMCs), McKinsey surveyed 100 of these institutions about what actions they are taking to improve, according to an April 12 report in Becker’s Hospital Review. According to the Becker’s article, the top 10 “operational levers” indicated by…
Editor's Note By putting the patient into deeper sedation during colonoscopy, propofol could help doctors find difficult-to-spot, potentially cancerous “serrated” polyps, according to a study published April 17 in Anesthesiology. As an alternative to moderate, “conscious” sedation, propofol facilitates a more thorough exam that is more likely to identify serrated…
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced a Class 1 recall on Monday for Abbott/Thoratec Corp.’s HeartMate II and HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Assist System (LVAS) due due to biological material buildup obstructing the devices. According to an April 16 CBS News report, surgeons first noticed problems with the…